


A loving embrace

by nazangel



Series: This destiny [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Andy is a good sister, Big sister Andy, But sometimes you just need your big sister to hug you, Crying, Gen, Hugging, Hurt/Comfort, Joe Needs a Hug, Joe and Nicky love eachother, M/M, Men Crying, Nicky needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26001784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nazangel/pseuds/nazangel
Summary: Sometimes it's difficult to comfort each other when you're both hurting. Good thing Joe and Nicky have Andy as an older sister.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova & Quynh | Noriko, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: This destiny [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1887244
Comments: 14
Kudos: 155





	A loving embrace

Nicky can't sleep. Beside him, Joe lay on his back. Awake. Just like him.

Nicky wanted to reach out and comfort him, to say soft words and run his fingers through his curls. Nicky wanted to be held close to the warm and comforting body as Joe gave him kisses.

But he seemed to be frozen. The pain and horror from the day playing at a loop in his head. The doctor's scalpel, Booker's betrayal, Andy's blood-

With a shudder, Nicky sat up and ran a hand down his face.

"Nicky?" whispered Joe. He was sitting up too now, tears shining in his eyes, on the verge of falling. Usually, Nicky would reach out to wipe them away, kiss his cheeks until he was smiling again.

At the moment he couldn't find the energy.

Why was it so hard to comfort each other when they were both hurting so? Were they both just tired? Too broken from the day's events?

"I'm sorry," he told his lover, knowing that Joe would pick up on its meaning, that he would never hold it against him.

"I think," murmured Joe, probably picking up on Nicky's thoughts, "That we should think of relocating,"

It took a few moments for Nicky to understand and when he did, he wondered if it was a good idea. After everything that had happened, intruding might not be the best thing.

But then he looked at Joe again and he seemed to think it was a feasible ides. So Nicky nodded and they both got up to move to their next destination.

X

It was late into the night by the time Andy headed back to her room. She first passed Nile's room, saw her conked out on her bed and them moved on to the couple's room. She frowned when she found it empty but then, thinking over the day's events, another thought occurred to her.

Andy made a sharp turn toward her room and sure enough, found both men on her bed.

Joe was laying down with an arm thrown over his eyes and Nicky was sitting at the foot of the bed cross-legged and playing with his hands. Andy quickly took in the careful distance between them, the tension in their bodies, the tears in Nile's eyes and the way Joe's shaking hands indicated that he was holding himself back from something.

After her quick observation, Andy carefully made her way to the bed. Nicky looked up as soon as she sat by Joe. She opened her arms and Nicky was instantly at her side, moving until he was tucked into her side. After he was situated, she gently coaxed Joe until he was clinging to her.

Andy whispered a few gentle words and Joe was freely sobbing in her arms, a trail of apologies and explanations in a mix of languages that were too quick for her to understand.

She gently shushed him all the same.

"It's alright, Joey," she said softly, "It's alright,"

"I'm so angry and angry that I'm angry I-" The man could only get a few words before he dissolved into sobs again. Andy squeezed his shoulders and used her other hand to grip Nicky's, who was also in the middle of wetting her shoulder with his tears, albeit, a little more quietly than Joe.

"It's going to be okay," she whispered, "It's going to be okay,"

"How could he-?" murmured Joe, "How could he?'

Andu pursed lips and gently rocked him in her arms, humming a tune long forgotten by the rest of the world. There were many ways that she could answer those questions, so many things she could say but that wasn't what these two needed right now. So she quietly held them close, silently reaffirming promises made long ago.

Beside her, Nicky seemed to lose his tension a bit as he maneuvered to lay himself down better. With her now free hand, Andy reached for the blankets and expertly laid them over all three of them.

Eventually, both men calmed down enough to be talked to.

"You are allowed to be angry and to be hurt," she murmured to them, "You have that right, don't feel bad for it,"

Nicky nodded and laid his head on her thigh, his hand finding one of Joe's. Andy kept on rocking Joe gently, wondering if it could have been different if instead of travelling alone and far away she had kept Booker as close as this, wondering if she could have seen exactly how-

No. No, that wasn't what they needed right now. Booker had made his choices. She had two other brothers to look after.

So for the time being, Andy cast their absent brother out of her mind and focused on the men sitting close to her.

They would be okay.

X

Years and years ago, when Joe and Nicky's love had still been young and unexplored, when they had been filled with fear and doubt, more apart than together, they had found themselves two older warrior-sisters.

Andromache and Quynh had welcomed them with wide arms and full hearts, had been kind and open when explaining to them what they knew. They had soothed some of their fears and at the same time had given them new ones to think of.

One night, when Quynh had been asleep, Andromache had sat with Yusuf and Nicolo, apologizing for overstepping but still asking them about what was between them.

"I am only trying to understand, there is something between you but you both seem to run from and it hurts you both. Why torment yourselves like this when you can be each other's comfort?"

They had hesitated at first but eventually, their tongues had loosened and they had told her everything. Their initial fighting, their perseverance in leaving behind the hateful lessons taught by their elders, Nicolo's apologies and Yusuf's understanding but most of all they talked about the encounters they had in the context of two men being together.

"We were not even lovers," Yusuf had said, "We had merely been sharing a room out of necessity and the man had assumed and the assumption had been enough for him to sneak into our room and take a blade to us,"

Andromache had understood then, why the two had been going to asleep one at a time. They did not have the same experience as her and Quynh, could not sleep lightly, could not wake themselves from sleep at the slightest of sounds. And they were afraid.

Joe still remembers how she had taken both their hands and looked them in the eye.

"You two take whatever time you need, and do whatever you have to do to make yourselves comfortable with yourselves and each other, but remember that through it all _I_ will protect you, always. You can sleep safely now,"

With lighter hearts and better spirits, they had thanked her as most of the weight had lifted off their shoulders.

Now nearly a millennium later, Joe pressed himself close to Andy and held his Nicky's hand, thinking back to that night.

It was nice, Joe though, to know that even now, after everything, their sister watched out for them.

He fell asleep knowing that he and Nicky would be safe with Andy. Always.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed! Comments and Kudos are appreciated!


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